THE VALUE AND IMPORTANCE OF FEMINISM IN THE NOVELS OF SHOBHAA DE

ABSTRACT One of the primal and seminal concerns of Feminism is to declare that a woman is a being, not an appendage but an autonomous being, capable of finding her own self. In its early stages feminism thought of Amazon-Utopias, an all-female world, but the recent trends are an indication that it's possible for a woman to live in the world where men also live. The deeper most concerns of the novelists in Indian have been the human relationships, especially men-women relationships, and the functioning of female psyche. The contemporary novelists are entangled in the complexities of men-women relationships and subtleties of feminine consciousness. The early image of woman in Indian English Novel as a silent, an incarnation of patience and endurance has gradually been eroded. The woman portrayed by the Indian Feminist writers is a picture of an independent, free-thinking individual. Women writers like 'Shobhaa De' are conscious of the marginal status of woman in society. The study incorporated here includes major novels of 'Shobhaa De'. The endeavor here undertaken is an analysis of her novels from feminist point of view.